Oracle Blog

News from the GlassFish Community

Thursday Feb 19, 2015

...well almost! There are still some minor processes to go through before they are published as official RFCs but the IESG has formally approved the HTTP/2 and HPACK specifications! So clearly, it’s safe to say that HTTP/2 is done! And given how vital the HTTP protocol is in today’s world, this is really important news.

The fact that HTTP/2 is binary based (Vs. HTTP 1.x being text based) removes lot of technical barriers that (text-based) HTTP 1.x had and allows the introduction of new capabilities. Those new capabilities (e.g. stream multiplexing over a single TCP connection, stream prioritization, server-push, etc.) are more than welcome as they will reduce the overall Web latency. HTTP/2 will also help to get rid of the various “hacks” (e.g. file concatenation, domain sharding) that were put in place to work-around the HTTP 1.x limitations (e.g. Head-of-Line blocking).

HTTP/2 maintains a high-level compatibility with HTTP 1.x and preserve a lot of its predecessors concepts (e.g. URI, headers, etc.). So from a Java EE developer point of view, the HTTP/2 impact will be relatively minimal and only a few HTTP/2 aspects will be exposed to the developer through the Servlet API (Server-Push & Stream Prioritization). This work is conducted right now in the Servlet 4 (JSR 369) Experts Group (see EG discussions here).

And even if you are not a Web-tier developer, it is important to understand HTTP/2 and what it brings. For that, you are strongly encouraged to watch the session that Ed Burns and Shing wai Chan (Servlet 4 Specification Leads) gave during last JavaOne on HTTP/2 and the Servlet 4 plans (slides here).

Thursday Oct 30, 2014

The main focus of Servlet 4 (JSR 369) is to introduce HTTP/2 support into the Java EE Platform. During their JavaOne session, Ed Burns and Shing Wai Chan, the 2 Servlet 4 Specification Leads, gave a good introduction to HTTP/2 and its main features.

Ed and Shing Wai started by explaining some of the HTTP 1.1 limitations we are facing such as Head-of-Line Blocking and how we have all been trying to work-around some of those issues.

They then explained HTTP/2 main features (Binary Framing, Stream Multiplexing and Prioritisation, Server Push, etc.) and how those will solve the HTTP 1.1 limitations.

Some of those new HTTP/2 enhancements are optimisations that are fully transparent to the upper layers (e.g. Stream Multiplexing, Header Compression) but some of those new capabilities might improve applications that are able to exploit them (e.g. Server Push). Ed and Shing Wai showed how the Servlet 4 API might expose some of those capabilities to the developer.

The session was finally concluded with an overview of the HTTP/2 plans for Java SE 9.

Even if you are not really focused on the Web tier, this session is a good HTTP/2 introduction and given the importance of HTTP (and soon HTTP/2), this information should be valuable to your general (IT) knowledge!

Thursday Apr 18, 2013

By now, most of us know about the Java SE security vulnerability that affects primarily Java Applets. You might be relieved to know that the latest Java update, Java 7 Update 21, looks to fix that vulnerability. Java EE expert group member and key community figure Markus Eisele did an awesome job explaining the details and providing further context.

Although the security vulnerabilities definitely do not affect server-side applications (the ones running on GlassFish), GlassFish has had support for launching Java EE application clients using Java Web Start. If you don't know what Web Start is, you are hardly alone - it's even less prevalent than Applets these days. The java.com site does a pretty good job of explaining Web Start. The Java update affects Web Start too, so if you are using it, you'll need to be aware of the changes. Oracle's Tim Quinn explains what you need to watch out for.

Tuesday Mar 12, 2013

TomEE is one of the most exciting developments in the Java EE ecosystem. For those unaware, TomEE is a very cool Apache project that starts from Tomcat and adds OpenWebBeans, OpenEJB, OpenJPA, MyFaces, Apache CXF and ActiveMQ to create a very capable, lightweight Java EE environment! TomEE is one of the greatest examples of certified Java EE Web Profile implementations. It is also a great option for Java EE developers focused on Tomcat.

David Blevins, the project lead for TomEE, recently did a pretty interesting interview with JAX Magazine. In the interview, David talked about the history/motivation/value proposition behind TomEE, the Java EE Web Profile, the relationship between CDI, EJB and Java EE, the relationship between Tomcat and TomEE as well as Java EE 7. It is definitely a worthwhile, thought-provoking read...

Thursday Jan 10, 2013

We warmly welcome OW2 JOnAS to the Java EE 6 family! OW2 successfully certified a snapshot of JOnAS 5.3.0 M8 against the Java EE 6 Web Profile TCK. This brings the number of Web Profile implementations to no less than eight and the total number of certified platforms on the official Java EE compatibility page to nineteen.

Friday Jan 04, 2013

TomEE is one of the most exciting developments in the Java EE ecosystem. For those unaware, TomEE is a very cool Apache project that starts from Tomcat and adds OpenWebBeans, OpenEJB, OpenJPA, MyFaces, Apache CXF and ActiveMQ to create a very capable Java EE environment! TomEE is one of the greatest examples of certified Java EE Web Profile implementations. It is also a great option for Java EE developers focused on Tomcat.

This great article describes how you can use TomEE with NetBeans (you can also use Eclipse, check the TomEE docs).

Friday Nov 16, 2012

We are very pleased to welcome SAP NetWeaver Cloud to the Java EE 6 family! SAP successfully certified NetWeaver Cloud SDK-2.x.Beta against the Java EE 6 Web Profile TCK. This brings the number of Web Profile implementations to no less than seven and the total number of certified platforms on the official Java EE compatibility page to eighteen.

The Sun Identity Team is kicking off a monthly webinar program outlining our overall portfolio and how it can help you solve everyday identity challenges. The first session will be held on February 18 at 8AM PT and will provide an overview around how Sun approaches everyday identity and offer an overview of our methodology to build strong identity foundation that lasts. So . . . what are you waiting for! Register for our life changing webinar now!

Full details of the GlassFish Portfolio are at its
Home page.
The
GetIt tab
has a very good table with all the features, services and pricing - check it out!

Sun also issued a
Release
highlighting adoption of the GlassFish products in companies from Telcos (T-Mobile), Health (Medavie Blue Cross) and startups
(TravelMuse).
Check the
PR
for a full list, plus our
Adoption Stories
and Sun's more formal
Customer References.

As in past events, we are going to post a number of blog entries related to different facets of the products announced
today; we will (attempt to) use the tag
GlassFishPortfolio
consistently to help search through them.
We are also going to host a set of short (10') presentations at
TheAquarium Online to cover this material,
with the usual recordings for later playback.

Monday Jan 19, 2009

Here are some recent news that will have an impact on many of our GlassFish users:

From Ruby-land,
news that
Merb will merge into Rails 3.
This seems a case where combining the two efforts should improve the result.
We are also noticing a significant increase in the mindshare around JRuby in all
these projects as the quality of JRuby continues to increase.
Added - also see the
Story at SDTimes.